AsiaPOP Comicon Manila has announced on Thursday that Shoji Kawamori, the renowned creator of the Macross anime franchise, will be one of the event’s special guest for this year.

AsiaPOP Comicon Manila 2017 will happen on August 25-27 at the SMX Convention Center – Manila at the Mall of Asia Complex in Pasay City.

Shoji Kawamori is known for being involved in the creation of The Super Dimension Fortress Macross anime series, where he was involved in the mechanical design and other aspect of the series.

Aside from creating the highly-popular franchise, Kawamori was also involved in directing, story and mecha designs of its several adaptations, including Macross Frontier and its most recent work, Macross Delta.

He was also credited in several projects like Aquarion, Nobunaga the Fool, AKB0048 and The Vision of Escaflowne, as well as working as a staff in Cyber Formula GPX, Eureka Seven and Ghost in the Shell.

He is the Senior Managing Director of the anime studio Satelight.

Aside from his works in Japanese manga and anime, Kawamori worked in Japanese toy company Takara in the late 70s and designed the “Diaclone” toy car series.

The toy series eventually become a part the first generation Transformers toys by American toy company Hasbro, where he designed the characters Optimus Prime, Bluestreak, Ratchet, and several others.

In 2001, he had designed one of the Sony AIBO robotic dogs, the ERS-220.

JM Melegrito is the Executive Editor of Anime Pilipinas, who oversees the entire editorial direction of the website, including news operations, opinion review, and partnerships with different stakeholders.